While the Blawenburg Band is commemorating its 120th anniversary year with a gala concert at Hopewell High School on Sunday, May 16, at 3 p.m., Norman Bergstrom of West Windsor, the longest active member of the band, is celebrating close to 50 years of performing. He has played both trumpet and cornet with the band since 1962. The concert features an overture, a tone poem, dances, show tunes, and several marches by Sousa. Founded in Blawenburg in 1890 when towns depended on their own people for live musical entertainment, the group is one of the oldest community bands in the country. Admission is free.
Born and raised in West Windsor, Bergstrom still lives in the house built in the 1800s that his grandfather moved to in 1912. His grandfather was a blacksmith and had his shop on the four-acre estate on South Mill Road. Bergstrom donated the blacksmith tools to the Historical Society of West Windsor where they are now on display in the barn at the Schenk House. Bergstrom’s father, Norman, worked for American Telephone and his mother, Eba, was a teacher in Princeton.
Bergstrom attended Dutch Neck School when there was one classroom for each grade and remembers the first addition being built when he was in first grade. Since there was no musical instrument program in West Windsor schools, he was not introduced to the trumpet until he entered Princeton High School in 1960. He started in the marching band, played in the concert band, and occasionally with the orchestra.
“There were several West Windsor residents in the Blawenburg Band in the 1960s, and they got me involved with the band,” says Bergstrom. “There were only 10 to 20 members then.” The band has grown through the years and now includes close to 75 active members, ranging in age from their teens to their 90s.
Some of his favorite band memories include trips to the White House to play on the lawn. Their last visit was to perform for President Clinton. The band performs about 30 concerts a year including visits to nursing homes, church suppers, and community affairs. They never charge but donations to meet expenses are always welcome.
A graduate of Worster Polytech, Bergstrom majored in electrical engineering and was an engineer at New Jersey Bell. Now retired, he is devoted to music and sings with Westminster Community Choir, conducts a choral group, and is active in a brass group known for performing on Palmer Square on Christmas Eve.
Blawenburg Band, Hopewell Valley High School, 259 Pennington-Titusville Road. Sunday, May 16, 3 p.m. Guest appearance by Loras Schissel, conductor of the Virginia Grand Military Band. Refreshments and Dixieland session follow. Free. 609-924-2790. www.blawenburg.band.org.
